Apple has been a leader in using PCIe-based flash storage, which offers far greater bandwidth than SATA-based SSDs. The new 2016 MacBook Pro's specs blow away the performance of its predecessor by nearly double.

Health insurer Aetna said it plans to give employees 50,000 free Apple Watches and subsidize the cost of the mobile device for a select number of its largest customers in an effort to bolster its analytics-based mobile wellness and healthcare management programs.

Automakers and municipal governments are testing new technologies that would make it possible to offer wireless charging stations embedded in the pavement or even in manhole covers -- thus removing the power cords from electric vehicles.

Single disk drive shipments continue to surpass all other storage devices, such as RAIDed NAS systems, for personal data storage, while shipments of hardware with the Thunderbolt interface surged in the past year.

A year after a flooding disaster in Thailand took out a large portion of hard disk drive production, the industry has fully recovered with shipments to the computer market expected to hit a record level this year.